Turning 30: My observations on what I’ve learned so far

This is going to be a short blog post about turning 30, with minimal editing and written in one sitting.

Hopefully, this post will add value to one person out there. Especially in a world that’s become highly edited and inauthentic.

Today, I’m turning 30.

Here are a few things I’ve learned.

No numbers, no “marketing speak,” no opt-in gates… just what I’m feeling right now.

I wish I took more “big risks” in my 20s. Like my friends growing up, at school, in college, and after graduation, I followed a conventional path. I took a job right out of college because it paid me $50,000 a year.

Back then, it seemed like a ton of money.

Now, I laugh because $50,000 is really nothing in the grand scheme of life. And that $50k was the amount it took me to settle for a 9-5 job that didn’t speak to my soul, in a city that I didn’t really like.

If I could give advice to my 22-year-old self, I’d say work for a startup or start a company.

The upside is so much bigger than the traditional route (starting a successful business in my early 20s, learning a ton), and the downside would have been minimized at that age (live with my parents at worst).

Build more authentic connections. My best opportunities have come from connections with friends.

A goal for my 30s is to build stronger friend groups in different areas of my life:

Spiritual (e.g. meditation/consciousness group)

Physical (workout accountability buddies)

Mental (Mastermind work group — which I have, but want to expand and continue getting closer)

Emotional (some way to hold myself more accountable with emotions)

Building authentic, vulnerable connections has been one of the most difficult parts of my life. I want to deepen my existing friendships in my 30s, cut the “toxic” friendships, and find new friends who support my groth.

Seek more balance. About two hours ago, I met with David Cohen — the co-founder and co-CEO of insanely impressive Techstars.

He shared two things which stuck with me:

If you can’t take a week off the grid, something is broken. No one wishes they worked more on their deathbed, so make work part of my life… not my entire life

Teach people. When I keep ideas to myself, I prevent myself from learning and growing. Offload what I learned, help other people grow, and then move onto new things myself

2017 was a year I had my head down and worked non-stop. There was a lot of good… and a lot I regret.

I stopped doing a lot of balancing activities I did in years past — improv, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, ManKind Project.

While I’m glad I stopped those things (I was ready for a change), I lost balance overall. I turned everything into work. I wish I had spent more time trying new things, meeting new people, and traveling.

To celebrate turning 30, I traveled to Denver, Boulder, and Santa Fe.

I have mixed opinions on how it’s going (I’m writing this from Boulder). In hindsight, I would have planned more and gone somewhere way more fun like South America.

And, at the same time, I’m happy to have stepped outside of my comfort zone and traveled at all.

It’s easy for me to look at what I could have done better, and beat myself up over not being perfect. Sometimes, the grass is greenest when appreciating the steps I’ve taken even if they’re imperfect.

Here are pictures from my trip.

The Brown Palace in Denver, CO.

Boulder, CO. Along the Boulder Canyon Trail hike.

Another picture from Boulder, CO, along the Boulder Canyon Trail. Are those beaver dams?